JURASSIC PARK

[Tom K.]

Wasn't the sudden halt to the sequels some kind of Spielberg-mandated quality control thing?  He's still a producer on III, right?  I seem to remember that he made some comment as to why JURASSIC PARK IV wouldn't be rushed into production if it were to happen at all.  Of course, I probably just imagined that.

I just watched the first one for the first time in over a decade on AMC last night and was really impressed with how well much of it held up.  I was also impressed with how half-assed a lot of it seemed.  It was like a transition film for Spielberg from the popcorn director who did the first three Indiana Jones movies into the popcorn director who did the fourth.  There's a lot of fun, old school Spielberg touches in it, but you can feel him not quite caring (if he was even on set for much of the movie, which I understand may not have been the case).

If there's a fourth one, all three of our heroes should come back since they somehow manage to be the best thing in a movie full of groundbreaking dinosaur effects.  I like how Ian Malcolm in the first film feels like the personification of Spielberg's inner skeptic.  He even looks like a rock star Spielberg in a few scenes.

I also think that they should bring Samuel Jackson bag as a one-armed survivor.  Hey, if you had your arm ripped off and were left for dead on Isla Nublar, you'd probably have had it with all those motherfuckin' dinosaurs on this motherfuckin' island too!  He could also stop by Peter Jackson's Skull Island on the way home and teach the natives some self-respect while kicking some more dino tail.

[Taitdog]

One of my favorite moviegoing memories is seeing the first JP on opening weekend.  So much fun.  And I still enjoy the first one to this day.  LOST WORLD would've been just as great had it not been for the last 30 minutes.  Everything else before it, I had no problem with, but the T-Rex running loose in the city came off nowhere near as cool as it sounded when I heard about it.  It came off really lame and killed the movie for me.  JP3 isn't bad either.  If the Macy/Leoni characters could've been condensed or excised all together, I might've liked it more.

I still remember Harry Knowles' gushing review of JP3.  Does that guy get anything right?

[DerickA]

Spielberg being skeptical about anything seems impossible.

[BrianLynch]

Spielberg was rumored to not have been there for LOST WORLD, not JP 1.  But he did leave post-production of the dinosaurs, etc. to Lucas, so he could start SCHINDLER.

[sean]

I was also impressed with how half-assed a lot of it seemed. 

It may be unfair, but it seems as if Spielberg put in very little effort, but it was such a perfect movie for him to be making that he didn't need to do more.

'Lost World' is kind of a glorious mess, like 'Temple of Doom'.

And I'm definitely with Lynch -- why aren't there more dinosaur movies?  It seems like a slam-dunk.  Somebody needs to remake 'The Valley of Gwanji'.

[Neri]

I saw JP III in the drive-thru on vacation in Cape Cod.  That was also the same week my mom almost ran over Margaret Cho on her bike in Provincetown.  That was a pretty big week actually. 

[DerickA]

Spielberg is never there for the final scene of the shoot because when he was making JAWS, he was afraid the crew was going to toss him into the ocean right after and it's become a tradition.

[nate.3.0]

So I guess I'm the only one who likes the second one more than the rest of them...?

[ExpendablesFan]

So I guess I'm the only one who likes the second one more than the rest of them...?

Liking it more than the first is pretty nuts. The first is one of the best summer movies ever. And Lost World has a ton of stupid shit in it.

[ScottE]

And I'm definitely with Lynch -- why aren't there more dinosaur movies?  It seems like a slam-dunk.  Somebody needs to remake 'The Valley of Gwanji'.

Someone needs to make a new big-budget version of The Lost World. Not Jurassic Park II, but the Arthur Conan Doyle novel. I read it recently for the first time and it is genuinely exciting and interesting. Seeing Victorian-era gentlemen run around the jungle avoiding pterodactyls would be awesome.

[Wolfe]

So I guess I'm the only one who likes the second one more than the rest of them...?

I'd imagine so, but one thing I'll give THE LOST WORLD is, after the "gymnastics conquers raptors" part, the other thing it gets the most guff over is the T-rex in San Diego, and I thought that was the best part of the whole movie. To me, that was what a JURASSIC PARK sequel should have been, dinosaurs attacking the mainland.

[Tom B]

It feels a bit too tacked on and rushed though - like you said, they could have gotten a whole film out of dinosaurs going nuts on the mainland.

[BrianLynch]

Part 1 was indeed one of the greatest summer movies of all time.  LOST WORLD is great, but not nearly as.

I think a mainland JURASSIC PARK movie would be difficult, as it's all about suspense and them having the advantage.  The minute you put them in a city, it's a lot of yelling and shooting, which isn't JURASSIC PARK.

[Luke Erik]

JP is on tonight at 8(ish) est, on AMC, fyi.

When I was in the 7th grade, my teacher Ms. Black (who I had a huge crush on) asked to see me after class. In short she gave me a copy of Jurassic Park and told me that soon the book will become a movie. I read the book, if I remember correctly, within ten days. The book did some things better, such as the interaction with the Raptors (especially when the docs try to steal the eggs) but so did the movie (especially how the cartoon DNA guy described around two chapters of the book in two minutes).

Kind of weird how in the books so many characters die, just to be found alive in THE LOST WORLD. If my memory serves both Dr.Hammond and Goldbloom die in the book. 

[Strang]

The first is one of the best summer movies ever.

Part 1 was indeed one of the greatest summer movies of all time. 

This is a dumb and insulting caveat. It's one of the best movies of all time.